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These Gleeful "Bannon OUT" Tweets Are Hoping He'll Be "Alt-Right"

by Jon Hecht
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images News/Getty Images

In the latest of a series of high-level of staff changes, President Trump's controversial chief strategist, Steve Bannon, is out at the White House. As the former chief of the far-right Breitbart News, known for his nationalist, anti-immigrant, and anti-Muslim views, Bannon was a frequent target for both anger and mockery from the left.

Saturday Night Live cast the Grim Reaper to play him. The Onion portrayed him as some sort of insect-like monster. Twitter-users opposed to Bannon's nativist views and worried about his influence on the country in the midst of the fight over the later-struck-down executive order banning travel from seven Muslim-majority nations, started #PresidentBannon, aimed at portraying the chief strategist as the one really in charge of Trump, targeting the president's frequent desire to be in the spotlight.

Hilariously, that seemed to work exactly as the people promoting the hashtag expected it to. The president was reportedly upset when Bannon ended up on the cover of Time Magazine, and his frustration about Bannon's participation in Joshua Green's book Devil's Bargain, which gave Bannon and Trump equal billing on the cover, reportedly contributed to his firing.

So with Bannon out, Twitter has responded the only way it knows how, with joke after joke tagged #BannonOut.

1. The effort to remove Confederate statues marches on.

2. The best people.

3. An "exclusive" look.

4. More "sad Trump voter" articles.

5. But will he be "alt-right"?

Some of those on Twitter who oppose Bannon note that he is still likely to have influence on the White House's agenda even if he is not working in the building, and cautioned those who were celebrating not to lose sight of how much his ideology still has credence within the Trump administration, pointing to the president's recent comments seeming to partially sympathize with the neo-Nazi marchers in Charleston, which came from the president himself, not from his now-ousted advisor.

In the past 7 months that have comprised the still-new Trump administration, the staff upheaval has led to a shockingly high portion of administration officials that don't need Senate confirmation or direct election by the American people having left. Bannon's removal is a sign that the administration's opponents (which polls show are a majority of the country) are currently seeing more victories in opposing the president than defeats. Bannon's ouster comes not only after the removal of former Chief of Staff Reince Preibus, but also widespread condemnation of the president from within his own party.

We are still a far ways from an actual collapse of the Trump presidency, but the ouster of one of a top advisor suggests it's an administration on the defensive.